Mika Hotel Ulan Bator

... br>Day one is spent getting above the city and visiting a local temple, which is in need of a paint however pretty much in good order.

The next day we organise a trip out into the countryside to see a Ger camp, ride a horse and see a massive and impressive Gengis Khan stuck in the middle of know where.

The National park where we rode our horse,is beautiful and as with Lake Baikal, I am pleased to have the place to oursleves. Again a week or so ...

... much worse... she had heard it was snowing further north and the weather system was moving our way... it was so bad we might not be able to leave the following day...


That was when the deja vu kicked in. It was all very familiar, as I thought back to March 2006 when Anju and I found ourselves, on the penultimate day of our adventure, driving into a snowstorm in Tibet and getting stranded in a village for a couple of nights as an ...

... Chinese Border around 9pm, which is where they had to change the wheels on the train - just about the strangest thing to see while being on a train. They have to do this since China's tracks are 6 inches narrower than Mongolias and Russias.

Most of the border crossing was spent on the train while they were lifted each carriage up on hydraulic jacks and switched the wheels.


After they switched the wheels we got let ...

... the police station, where a sergeant on duty phoned a lady, who spoke some English, and Jon, taking no guff, spelled out what we needed. Amazingly, she seemed to understand, Jon confirmed, and soon, a young hotshot policeman with a lolly in his mouth appeared, joked with the sergeant for ten minutes, then motioned us through an unmarked door at the side of the building into a crime recording room full of people filling out reports, and dodgy looking characters ...

... cheap food at a local place for only around 1 pound and 50 pence, this was the kind of food that I was looking to get some where cheap and cheerful where you can mix with the locals and try the local dishes.

Anyway tommorow I am back on the train heading to Beijing for the last leg of the journey. I leave at 8am and get into Beijing the next day in the afternoon so its around 32 hours straight on the train.

... how we once were!).

Elstei is a camp established by Shuren - a leading Mongolian travel company here - 20 years ago - and is near a nomad camp where the nomads herd horses, goats and sheep and attend to the various needs of the tourists.

It was exactly what the doctor ordered for me - a week's solitude - loads of sleep - 3 meals a day - and horseriding; not to mention the company of the most amazing Mongolian staffers and visiting ...

... the session we celebrated Nairamdal's 31st birthday on the 19th and I applied for my visa for China. We went to the Chinese consulate the morning that the session ended. We took the bus in with the kids and then immediately went to turn in my application.

Afterwards we went to Uya's grandmothers to drop off our things before heading to the Black Market. The Black Market was fun, I bought some jewelry, some pearls for mom, Uya got the shoes ...

The end of my first whole session finished very well. In the last few days we had multiple talent contestь such as singing and dancing, a mini Olympics, which was hilarious to watch, and a mask show. The mask show was extremely funny because we took all the boys and dressed them up as American football players. We stuffed their shirts with clothes to make their shoulders look like they were wearing the shoulder pads and painted on the ...

... I go back inside and have breakfast. Th others I am with, say, "did you see the van? I hope our driver is ok." Running outside, I see the van. It is sitting on a ledge, 20 meters above a sheer drop. Scared for our driver, I see the ger owner and ask her. "The car?" she says, pointing it out. "No, no, the person, the PERSON!! our driver!! Is he ok???" She nods, and replies in Russian, "Normal'no." I'm not convinced. I find her husband, and ask ...

... with Jarvo straight under the Landy with a set of tools - the phrase "happy as a pig in muck" certainly applies to Jarvo when he gets a chance to wield a spanner! The second breakdown of the brake vacuum pump could have been a fatal blow to my trip had I not had the foresight (luck really!) to have bought a spare pump, despite the Land Rover Dealer insisting there was no problem with these parts and refusing to fit the newly issued revised part that would have prevented ...